98%
921
2 minutes
20
Population geneticists have long sought to understand the contribution of natural selection to molecular evolution. A variety of approaches have been proposed that use population genetics theory to quantify the rate and strength of positive selection acting in a species' genome. In this review we discuss methods that use patterns of between-species nucleotide divergence and within-species diversity to estimate positive selection parameters from population genomic data. We also discuss recently proposed methods to detect positive selection from a population's haplotype structure. The application of these tests has resulted in the detection of pervasive adaptive molecular evolution in multiple species.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5662103 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12915-017-0434-y | DOI Listing |
Elife
September 2025
Human Biology and Primate Evolution, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Evidence indicates that transposable elements (TEs) can contribute to the evolution of new traits, with some TEs acting as deleterious elements while others are repurposed for beneficial roles in evolution. In mammals, some KRAB-ZNF proteins can serve as a key defense mechanism to repress TEs, offering genomic protection. Notably, the family of KRAB-ZNF genes evolves rapidly and exhibits diverse expression patterns in primate brains, where some TEs, including autonomous LINE-1 and non-autonomous Alu and SVA elements, remain mobile.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJAMA Psychiatry
September 2025
Denovo Biopharma LLC, San Diego, California.
Importance: This study represents a first successful use of a genetic biomarker to select potential responders in a prospective study in psychiatry. Liafensine, a triple reuptake inhibitor, may become a new precision medicine for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), a major unmet medical need.
Objective: To determine whether ANK3-positive patients with TRD benefit from a 1-mg and/or 2-mg daily oral dose of liafensine, compared with placebo, in a clinical trial.
JAMA Netw Open
September 2025
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Importance: Research in behavioral economics has demonstrated that people have irrational biases, which make them susceptible to decisional shortcuts, or heuristics. The extent to which physicians consciously might use nudges to exploit these heuristics and thereby influence their patients' decision-making is unclear. In addition, ethical questions about the conscious use of nudges in medicine persist, yet little is known about how physicians experience and perceive their use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQual Life Res
September 2025
School of Pharmacy, CHOICE Institute, University of Washington, 1956 NE Pacific St H362, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.
Purpose: Typically, cost-effectiveness analyses use societal utility weights for health states. These anticipated utility weights are derived from asking the general population to assess the impacts of hypothetical health states on their quality-of-life. This study evaluates how these weights align with real-world self-reported experienced health statuses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Surg Oncol
September 2025
Cancer Center, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Background: The optimal number of examined lymph nodes (ELN) for accurate staging and prognosis for esophageal cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of ELN count on pathologic staging and survival outcomes and to develop a predictive model for lymph node positivity in this patient population.
Methods: Data were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and a multicenter cohort.